WO1997043807A1

WO1997043807A1 - Method and device for generating activated light, especially biologically active light

Info

Publication number: WO1997043807A1
Application number: PCT/NO1997/000128
Authority: WO
Inventors: Tony Van Der Valk; Jörg Klemm; Fritz-Uno Johansson; Svend Nielsen
Original assignee: Valkion Medical A/S
Priority date: 1996-05-15
Filing date: 1997-05-14
Publication date: 1997-11-20
Also published as: AU2794897A; NO962026D0; NO305059B1; NO962026L

Abstract

In a method for generating activated light especially biologically active light a chamber (3) in which there is a photo-sensitive material (6) is irradiated with light which produces a photo-sensitization in the material. The light in the chamber (3) is transferred through a light guide and thereby employed as a light source for activating a liquid or influencing a biological medium or surface. A device is also described for use in such a method.

Description

Method and device for generating activated light, especially biologically active light

The invention relates to a method and a device for generating activated light, especially biologically active light.

In NO patent application no. 960494 a device is described for providing a singlet oxygen-activated oxygenous gas flow. It has previously been discovered that singlet oxygen is directly biologically active, and it has been demonstrated that even though singlet oxygen rapidly returns to oxygen in its ground state, a medium, liquid or gas in which singlet oxygen has been formed will have a certain altered state which has been described as an activated state. Gas which has been activated by such a reaction can be employed, e.g., for biological or therapeutic treatment as well as for the enrichment of, e.g., water which is used for the cultivation of plants, fish farming, etc. With a device such as that described in NO patent application no. 960494 it is the gas which flows through the apparatus which constitutes the energy ^•carrier, and therefore it is the gas itself which is used as the treatment means for the biological medium or in the therapeutic treatment. In this connection there has been a desire to find alternative transitions or continuations of the energy-activated state which prevails in the reaction chamber. The object of the invention is therefore to provide such an alternative.

This object is achieved with a method and a device which are characterized by the features which are presented in the patent claims.

With the device which is described in the above-mentioned Norwegian patent application energy is released when singlet oxygen returns to its ground state after being created by means of a photo-sensitive process. The released energy can be partially transferred to liquids, such as water, as vibration energy, which also applies to water molecules which are found in a gaseous atmosphere. The energy which is released by this return of singlet oxygen to normal oxygen in its ground state is 22 kcal per mol in the case of a bimolecular transition, and 1 1 kcal per mol in the case of a monomolecular transition. This can be observed amongst other things as light energy with wavelengths of 634.3 and 1268.7 nm, corresponding to bimolecular and monomolecular transitions from singlet state to triplet ground state. As in many cases where natural light is concerned, this light is more or less coherent, i.e. the photons are more or less ordered and capable or containing or transferring selective information.

The released photoenergy with the said wavelengths can be further transported with the gas flow through the reaction chamber of the device.

It has, however, also been recognized that this energy can also be transferred as a coherent light beam when a light guide is placed in communication with the chamber where the reaction takes place, thus causing the energy state to be "further transported" in the form of a light beam with a specific wavelength/frequency which is determined by the release of energy in the chamber by means of a photo-sensitive reaction.

The effect has been achieved in chambers without through-flow, but also chambers with a certain through-flow effect will probably be able to produce such an activated amount of light and pressure conditions in the chamber. Variants of this kind will lie within the scope of the invention. The reaction in the chamber which is currently most commonly used for this purpose is the said transition of oxygen to singlet oxygen by means of photo-sensitive effect and the return to oxygen in its ground state, resulting in the release of energy. It is, however, also conceivable that similar energy conversion processes can be employed in a reaction chamber and singlet oxygen can also be created in a liquid atmosphere. In this connection a variant can also be envisaged with photo-sensitive material in a suspended state in the liquid in the chamber, thus providing a more homogeneous light effect. As regards choice of material and construction of the reaction chamber, reference is made to Norwegian application 960494.

The invention will now be described in more detail by means of an embodiment which is illustrated in the drawing, in which:

fig. 1 is a device according to the invention viewed in a side section, and fig. 2 is a device according to the invention viewed from above, with the radiation source removed.

The device according to the invention is constructed on the basis of, e.g., a metal plate 1 , which may, e.g., be rectangular, on which there is placed a ring centre hole of the ring 3 there is placed a glass plate 4 which seals this cavity, thereby forming an activating chamber 3. In the illustrated example there is placed on this plate 4 a halogen lamp with a glass cover which illuminates a certain part of the radiation, thus providing a radiation within a specific frequency pattern. The glass plate 4 may be an integrated part of the halogen lamp.

In the bottom of the activating chamber 3 there is placed a layer or coating of photo-sensitive material, indicated by 6.

In the metal basic part 1 there may be provided a hole, through which there is pulled a light guide, in the illustrated example an optic fibre cable with fibres with a diameter of 50 μm. A guide of this type may, e.g., consist of 440 fibres and have an outer diameter of 2.28 mm. It is also possible to employ solid light guides, e.g. with an outer diameter of 1.2 or 3 mm.

In its basic construction the apparatus corresponds to the apparatus which is illustrated in application no. 960494, but here it is not a case of a through- flow chamber, but a sealed system. The reaction medium in the chamber 3 will radiate a light with a certain energy content, and this light can be transferred through the optic fibre cable 7 to a treatment location for a biological medium or to a location where a therapeutic treatment is to be performed. The light through the guide will be a coherent light and it has surprisingly been shown that this light can have a similar effect to the gas flow from the chamber which was described in the above-mentioned Norwegian patent application. The reaction in the chamber, which in the embodiment illustrated has been oxygen with transition to singlet oxygen and back, has been based on the effect from the photo-sensitive layer 6 in the bottom of the chamber.

In the illustrated example the light guide 7 is placed in a central position in the bottom of the chamber 3, but the light guide can also be placed in other locations, such as in a side wall of the chamber or in an upper surface, depending on the construction of the chamber.

Experiments have been conducted with a device like that illustrated in the drawings. Light has thereby been transferred from the reaction chamber through the light guide 7 without any reaction having taken place in the chamber. This type of light has had no effect on the biological medium. In a comparative experiment in which a reaction took place in the reaction chamber the light through the light guide 7 has had an active effect on the biological medium, and this can only be attributed to the fact that the reaction in the chamber has placed the light which is transferred through the guide in a specific coherent state with regard to frequency/wavelength.

The invention can be varied in many ways within the scope of the patent claims. Even through a mercury lamp was used in the example, other types of light can also be used, including sunlight. The main task of this light is to provide a photo-sensitive reaction in the gas or liquid which is in the reaction chamber. The reaction chamber may be designed in many different ways. The fibre optic guide can be placed in a suitable location in the chamber, depending on the construction of the chamber, and other types of light guides than optical fibres are also conceivable.

Methylene blue or rose bengal, e.g., can be used as photo-sensitive materials. The photo-sensitive material can be produced on the basis of a microporous surface, on which chromophore particles are applied by kinetic, thermal or chemical methods.

Claims

PATENT CLAIMS

1. A method for generating activated light, especially biologically active light, characterized in that a chamber, in which there is a photo-sensitive material, is irradiated with light which produces a photo-sensitization in the material, and that when transferred through a light guide the light in this chamber is employed as a light source by activating a liquid or a biological medium or surface.

2. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the chamber is irradiated with sunlight or with light from a halogen lamp or another beam with a defined radiation spectrum.

3. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that as a light guide an optic fibre cable is employed.

4. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that an oxygenous material, such as an oxygenous gas is placed in the chamber and that by means of photo-sensitization singlet oxygen is created which subsequently returns to its ground state and that the contents of the chamber are employed as a light source for the light guide.

5. A device for use in a method according to claim 1 , characterized in that it comprises an activating chamber which contains a gas or liquid, that on one side the chamber has a surface which can be penetrated by rays from a light source which has sufficient intensity to achieve photo- sensitization with a photo-sensitive material which is placed in the activating chamber on the side located opposite to the light source, or suspended in the liquid, and that there is provided in the chamber one end of a light guide, preferably an optic fibre cable, the other end of which constitutes the treatment probe.

6. A device according to claim 5, characterized in that the end of the light guide is provided in the bottom or in a side wall of the chamber.

7. A device according to claim 5, characterized in that the chamber is sealed.

8. A device according to claim 5, characterized in that in the chamber there is provided an oxygenous liquid or gas.

9. A device according to claim 5, characterized in that the chamber is a through-flow chamber with an inlet and outlet for continuous through flow of gas or liquid.